Hillary Clinton says those casting doubt on 2020 election results are ‘doing Putin’s work’

“We never thought we had to worry about domestic enemies,” Hillary Clinton says

Former Secretary of State and 2016 election candidate Hillary Clinton has struck out at elected officials who continue to question the results of the 2020 election, accusing them of doing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “work” for him.

Speaking in an appearance on MSNBC’S Morning Joe, Ms Clinton said those who continue to spread conspiracy theories and question the results of the election that saw President Joe Biden elected are sowing “distrust” and “divisiveness” in the US.

“We never thought we had to worry about domestic enemies. We never thought we had to worry about people who didn’t believe in our democracy,” Ms Clinton said.

“And sadly, what we’ve seen over the last four years and particularly since the election is that we have people in our own country who are doing Putin’s work,” she said.

“They are doing his work to sow distrust, to sow divisiveness, to give aid and comfort to those in our country who, for whatever reason, are being not only disruptive but very dangerous.”

Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly made unfounded claims of the 2020 election being “rigged” against him – a claim that has been repeated by many of his supporters.

With efforts abroad and, Ms Clinton said, “here at home” to deepen divisions, the former secretary of state said: “Biden knows he has to work on both fronts”.

The former secretary of state also suggested that under the Trump administration, the US “emboldened Putin”.

“We gave him a green light. I never thought I would see some of what we saw during the four years of the Trump administration,” she said.

Her comments come as Mr Biden meets with his Russian counterpart for the first time since his 2020 election victory.

It also comes amid a push from Democrats and some Republicans for further investigation into the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol Building that saw rioters, including many Trump supporters, storm the Capitol and interrupt the certification of Mr Biden’s election victory.

Ahead of his summit with Mr Biden, Mr Putin pointed to the insurrection as an example of what he saw as an authoritarian crackdown on dissent.

“We have a saying: ‘Don’t be mad at the mirror if you are ugly,’ ” Mr Putin said in an interview with NBC News.

“It has nothing to do with you personally, but if somebody blames us for something, what I say is, ‘Why don’t you look at yourselves? You will see yourselves in the mirror, not us’,” he said.